Development of the Hearing Rehabilitation for Older Adults (HeRO) Healthcare Mobile Application and Its Likely Utility for Elderly Users

Chanbeom Kwak, Saea Kim, Sunghwa You and Woojae Han
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Chanbeom Kwak: Laboratory of Hearing and Technology, Research Institute of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon 24252, Korea
Saea Kim: Laboratory of Hearing and Technology, Research Institute of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon 24252, Korea
Sunghwa You: Laboratory of Hearing and Technology, Research Institute of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon 24252, Korea
Woojae Han: Laboratory of Hearing and Technology, Research Institute of Audiology and Speech Pathology, College of Natural Sciences, Hallym University, Chuncheon 24252, Korea

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: The present study aimed to develop a healthcare application for the elderly who suspect or know they have a hearing loss, namely, the Hearing Rehabilitation for Older Adults (HeRO), which is available in a mobile device, and then to confirm its probability of acceptance among elderly users. Under a web server system, HeRO which had four types of tailored training for the aged auditory system (i.e., syllable, sentence, discourse, working memory) and a self-reported questionnaire to screen amount of the hearing loss was completed for the elderly. To verify whether the HeRO contents and functions were user-friendly to the elderly users, the technology acceptance model (TAM) was used. Forty-four older adults were asked to use the developed application for 10 days and then respond to a TAM questionnaire with 25 items. The Cronbach’s α coefficient of each subcategory was very high. The construct validity of all subcategories showed high eigenvalues using principal component analysis. Furthermore, our regression model statistically supported a persuasive intention to use the healthcare application because the elderly readily accept it and find it easy to manipulate. We expect the current technology to be applied to the general public as well as the elderly who want to explore digital health.

Keywords: digital health; age-related hearing loss; auditory training; technology acceptance model; gerontechnology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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